The Far East is an English term (with equivalents in various other languages of Europe and Asia, Chinese 遠東 yuǎn dōng literally translating to "far east") mostly describing East Asia (including the Russian Far East) and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century, denoting East Asia as the "farthest" of the three "easts", beyond the Near East and the Middle East. For the same reason, Chinese people in the 19th and early 20th centuries called Western countries "Tàixī (泰西)"—i.e. anything further west than the Arab world. The term is less commonly used than in the past as it allegedly connotes the "orientalism" of the 19th century more explicitly than East Asia. Since the 1960s, terms like East Asia and the Orient have become increasingly common. East Asia remains the most common media term for the region today.
Read more about Far East: Popularisation, Cultural As Well As Geographic Meaning, Territories and Regions Conventionally Included Under The Term Far East
Famous quotes containing the word east:
“The majority of the men of the North, and of the South and East and West, are not men of principle. If they vote, they do not send men to Congress on errands of humanity; but while their brothers and sisters are being scourged and hung for loving liberty,... it is the mismanagement of wood and iron and stone and gold which concerns them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)